Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast

New Releases 7/04/08

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (G)
Starring: Abigail Breslin, Stanley Tucci, Julia Ormond, Joan Cusack, Glenne Headly
Director: Patricia Rozema
The child star du-jour, Abigail Breslin, plays an American Girl toy doll who is modeled after a fictional Cincinnati 9-year-old growing up during the Great Depression. Her parents try to cope with hard times and take in a number of colorful boarders to help pay the bills. But the bank forecloses and the family is cast into the street with their furniture. Pretty gritty material for a G-rated kid’s film, but think of all those traditional tales which begin by making orphans out of the children “gritty is an essential ingredient to strong storytelling.
3 and 1/2 pieces of my granddaughters will love this toast

Hancock (PG-13)
Starring: Will Smith, Jason Bateman, Charlize Theron, Eddie Marsan
Director: Peter Berg
I left the theater thinking of ways to re-edit what I had just seen “because there is an interesting story buried amid all the unnecessary collateral damage to skyscrapers, highways, trucks, automobiles and locomotives. The story is that of a superhero who recalls nothing that happened to him before he awoke 80 years ago, in a Miami hospital, with his skull crushed in. An hour later, his skull had healed, and he flew off to began his mission to save mankind from evildoers. But as he does so, he curses, chugs whisky by the barrel, and manages to make everyone mad “even those he has just saved from certain death. Sounds intriguing, especially when we learn this particular superhero has been around over 3000 years and used to called a god or an angel before the current super hero label was applied. But he filmmakers chicken out and attempt to rehabilitate this angry, not-so-young man.
2 pieces of Will Smith tries hard but-. toast

The Promotion (R)
Starring: John C. Reilly, Seann William Scott, Jenna Fischerm Lili Taylor, Bobby Cannavale
Director: Steve Conrad
Two actors struggle for screentime as they play competing assistant grocery store managers angling for the same promotion. Does predictable come to mind? How about harmless enough? Or straight laced and offensive? In other words, if there are no fireworks in the sky or hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill anywhere within fifty miles tonight, than you might bother to go see this supposed comedy.
1 and 1/2 pieces of so what toast

Up the Yangtze (NR)
Director: Yung Chang
Last year, my sister and her husband took a tour up the Yangtze River in China to see some of the culturally important artifacts, villages and natural wonders which will be under water when the largest dam ever built is finally completed. Canadian filmmaker Yung Chang and his parents took the same cruise in 2002 but they speak Chinese and were able to converse with some of the people directly impacted by the inevitable destruction of their homes. The result is an intimate, and dramatic documentary of human tragedy and tremendous opportunity.
3 and 1/2 pieces of up the not so lazy river toast

New on Video/DVD

Drillbit Taylor (PG-13)
Starring: Owen Wilson, Leslie Mann
Directed by: Steven Brill
Three high school kids fight back against bullies by hiring an adult bodyguard. Written by Seth Rogan with Judd Apatow’s backing, apparently no one bothered to read the script to see if it was any good. This one was given the green light even though there is no story here and the jokes fall flatter than a four flat tires. (There’s a 1980 movie called “My Bodyguard” that tackles the same issues but with finesse and breakout performances by young Adam Baldwin and Matt Dillon).
1/2 piece of whimpering toast

Vantage Point (PG-13)
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox
Directed by: Pete Travis
An investigation into the assassination attempt on the President of the United States focuses on the different things eight eye-witnesses saw (or think they saw). Intriguing premise schlocked up with over-cuts, digital clock count-downs, “accidental” recordings which reveal important (actually unimportant) clues, and characters we care little about._
1 and 1/2 pieces of grassy knoll toast